


inked lines of poetry

by LtTanyaBoone



Series: welcome to the Modern AU [11]
Category: Pan Am
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 14:48:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15342174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LtTanyaBoone/pseuds/LtTanyaBoone
Summary: Kate discovering the mark Colette has on the inside of her thigh. *rating due to scene containing sex that isn't the focus of the moment itself*





	inked lines of poetry

**Author's Note:**

> Image of Dürer's _Praying Hands_ can be found [here](https://www.welt.de/img/kultur/mobile102019949/1432508327-ci102l-w1024/Duerer-1-DW-Kultur-Washington-jpg.jpg).

The first time Kate gets a glimpse of it, Colette is wearing a short skirt that reminds her of the ones she used to wear with her school uniform. Only Colette's is not in a red and green plaid, but a yellow color with small roses all over it. They're sitting at a bar in Athens and the other woman crosses her legs, flashing some skin at the guy that is flirting with her currently. It also catches Kate's attention, and the redhead frowns, because it looks like Colette has a scar on the inside of her right thigh and she's wondering how on earth her friend might have gotten that.

The first time she actually realizes that it's not a scar is in Dubai, when the other woman pulls down her pants and leaves her slippers to race Laura down the side of the pool before they both jump in, their laughter carrying. Her lounge chair is next to Colette's and she got a view of the other woman's legs, the pale lines on the otherwise unmarked skin catching her attention again. She'd remembered the scar but the realization that it isn't actually an old injury, but a tattoo throws her so much that Kate keeps staring at the spot where Colette stood long after her friend and sister dove into the pool.

The first time she touches it is by accident. Colette is fidgeting next to her in a way that makes Kate even more nervous, so she slips her hand under the table and attempts to grab the other woman's thigh. But Colette has shifted again and her hands lands a lot higher up and a lot more on the inside of the other woman's thigh than she had wanted. She feels her stiffen and tense under the touch and quickly pulls back, an apology leaving her. Before she can explain, Colette has hopped from the barstool and has disappeared into the crowd of the Hungarian club, looking for someone attractive to dance the night away with.

The first time she actually reads what is written on Colette's skin is in Tokyo. Colette is lounging on her bed, right leg pulled up to support her book, the left one stretched out, showing Kate the inside of her right thigh and exposing her tattoo. Kate finds her eyes drawn. She's seen the picture before, actually, she googled it a while back when she first saw it and it felt familiar. Dürer's _Praying Hands_ done in white ink look fascinating. The lines next to them were always too far away and too faint for her to read, but now Colette is lying still, completely engrossed in her book. Perhaps Kate shouldn't. There has to be a reason why her friend got it at a place on her body that isn't usually exposed, in a color that makes it hard to pick out. But Kate can't help herself. And when she realizes what she is reading, she is left wondering yet again what exactly Colette's relationship with religion is.

The first time she feels mocked by it is in Berlin. Colette is on her back, arching, head thrown back as her hands twist into the bedsheets. Kate lets her tongue dart out again, moves it in a slow circle and takes in her reaction, watches as Colette's breath catches in her throat as one of her hands leaves the cover and grabs Kate's hair just this side of painful. Out of the corner of her eyes, Kate catches the tattoo, the praying hands and the French words making up the Lord's Prayer. She blinks, one of her hands leaving Colette's hips to grab her thigh and covers the image and words. This really is not something she wants to see or think about as she is going down on her girlfriend.

The first time she gets it is when she's on her back at a tattoo parlor in Lisbon. She's thought about the addition to the tattoo she got when she was seventeen for a while now, finally gathering her courage to get it done last night. They'd been in a Church. For Kate, it had been sight-seeing. For Colette, it had been something else. She'd sat there in the pews with her eyes closed for over an hour, by which time Kate had finished her rounds of taking in the impressive iconography. When she'd opened her eyes again, she'd seemed, calmer. Content. Confident. And Kate had looked at her and kissed her. On the mouth. In a church. Something she would never have considered even six months ago, but now felt so natural to her. It had been that moment, the feeling of shackles that had bound her for her entire life falling away that made Kate realize what she wanted, what she needed. And now she's watching as the tattoo artist adds a door to the birdcage she got as a teenager, before she moves on to the stencil making up the stylized form of a blackbird taking flight.

The first time Kate traces her fingertips over it without Colette slapping her hand away is in a hotel room in Sofia. Not because she is sleepy, no, Colette is intently watching Kate's index finger as it follows the outlines, hand toying with a curl of her red hair. But she allows her to touch it, eyes flickering to Kate's face every once in a while, and Kate wonders is this feels as symbolic to Colette as it does when the French woman touches the blackbird of Kate's piece.

_fin._


End file.
